Cubicles, also known as cubicle desks, office cubicles or cubicle workstations, offer a less expensive alternative to office design and layout. A cubicle is a partially enclosed workspace, separated from neighboring workspaces by partitions that are usually 4 to 8 feet tall. Its purpose is to isolate office workers from the sights and noises of an open workspace, the theory being that this allows workers more privacy, and personalization, and helps them to concentrate without distractions. Horizontal work surfaces are usually suspended from the vertical walls of cubicles, as is shelving, overhead storage, and other amenities. Within the cubicle walls often run conduits that carry electrical and communications lines (i.e., telephone and internet), allowing each cubicle easy connection as would be the case in a traditional office space.
Often the building housing the cubicles is a single large room, and the cubicle can be used to compartmentalize that large room into individual work areas. And as the needs of the company change, say for example more people are hired, then the existing cubicles can be reconfigured to accommodate the change. This is a marked difference from traditional office space design that would require the erection of permanent walls to create individual offices. Traditional office design would not allow the work space to accommodate the changes in the company needs, instead requiring very expensive demolition and relocation of permanent walls including all of the electrical and communication lines encased within those walls.
Existing cubicles come in a variety of vertical heights from 4 to 8 feet tall. Once the cubicle walls are installed, then several attachments can be made to those walls including shelves, bookcases, filing cabinet and desks. Also once installed an electrician will route the required electrical and communication lines through the cubicle wall conduits. Therefore, while cubicles are a flexible alternative accommodating changes in layout and design, there can be significant expense in disassembling and reconstructing the cubicles when certain accommodations are desired.
One such accommodation is extending the height of the existing cubicle wall. For example, a work space may be initially provisioned as a collaborative space requiring constant face time between peers such that lower 4 foot walls would be appropriate. However, that space may then be converted to a call center/customer service center requiring less collaboration and more separation (for example to lessen the amount of ambient noise to the customer when calling in).
Available cubicle design techniques and structure would require that shorter walls be replaced with taller walls. This, in turn, would require that the entire cubicle be disassembled (walls and attached horizontal surfaces), the internal wiring removed, new taller walls installed, new internal wiring run and the horizontal surfaces reinstalled. Not only is this expensive in installation labor and materials (i.e., new cubicle walls), it is also highly disruptive requiring the cubicles be off-line for several hours, if not days.
What is therefore needed is a system for quickly and inexpensively extending the height of vertical walls on a cubicle.